The Food Scout

Add Los Angeles to the list of cities-that-are-focused-on-the-wrong-set-of-issues-so-they-enact-stupid-Prohibition-style-legislation. At least Chicago and New York council people took on obesity last year in a more realistic, if misguided, way: by outlawing foods like fois gras or frying oil that could simply be left of trucks headed for restaurants in the city.

But the people in charge of the City of Angels have decided that if they simply stop the opening of new quickservice-style restaurants in L.A.’s city limits, people will be forced to eat more healthily and thus obesity will be wiped out in the area. Again, in an article that sounds like it was written by editors of The Onion, not the Associated Press (the lines must be blurring more quickly than we realized), Councilwoman Jan Perry was said to have proposed an ordinance that would stop new fast-food restaurants from opening in the area while the city establishes a “long-term plan” (like that’s going to happen).

Is there not an minimum IQ standard for elected officials? Don’t they know that restaurants are an important part of urban renewal and a means for immigrants to gain a foothold in the economy? Don’t they know that most quickservice restaurants have a range of options from low-fat to indulgent? Don’t they think that, at the least, people will just keep frequenting the 8,200 current choices and not change their habits or even notice the lack of new openings? Will drivers be pulled over by the LAPD if they enter the city limits with a sandwich wrapper from an outlawed establishment?

There’s just so much material here to work with.